Whoever stole the Euro exhibit, please put it back

Whoever

stole the Euro exhibit, please put it back

We had a project going at the

Peachtree City library and someone stole from the exhibit.

Dear Joe, Dear Jane:

Does it ring a bell? Peachtree

City library? Euro folder? I am sure you know what I am talking about.

Any pangs of conscience?

I spent January in Germany.

One day I dropped in at my hometown's local library and saw a neat poster

displaying the new Euro coins and bills (12 European countries stopped

using their individual currencies Jan. 1, 2002, instead using one common

currency now).

I asked the ladies for a spare

poster to take back with me to the U.S. to be displayed at the local library

of my adopted hometown, Peachtree City. They didn't have one, but knowing

where it would go to, they simply took the poster down and gave it to

me. That poster can now be seen at the Peachtree City library.

In addition, for the past month

the library handed out, on request, a folder with some basic information

on the Euro and a set of the old German coins as well as a complete set

of the German version of the new Euro coins plus a 5-Euro bill and an

old 10-DM bill.

Well, Jane, Joe, you removed

a Euro coin and the 10-DM bill from this exhibit. That's called a "theft,"

and I am sure you know that.

See, what bothers me most is

not the loss. It's only material loss. Items of sentimental value. I sure

would have liked to take the 10-DM bill back because I only have a single

one left of these pretty bills. What bothers me more is that you violated

my trust in you.

Unfortunately, this was not

the first time my trust was disappointed here in the U.S. (that really

bothers me). Yet when I organized the folder, I wanted to defeat my own

negative expectations, or call it paranoia, and not require the library

staff to have people sign in and out merely to take a look at the set.

I even refused to attach a note saying, "Please do not remove."

And I refused to ask the director of the library about its history of

thefts (she told me today, it's bad).

I persuaded myself to have

confidence in your honesty. "Why not trust people for a change?"

I said to myself. Now my old distrust is back. Joe, Jane, that really

bothers me.

Please put the bill and the

coin into an envelope and send it to the Peachtree City Public Library,

at the attention of Ms. M.T. Allen, Director. No return address needed.

Show that you have the courage to return the items. I have an extra brand-new

5-Euro bill; I'll send it to you. E-mail me at [email protected], a

friend's address, so that I can send it to you.

I am sure you don't want me

to go